Swissport seeks legal recourse in Ukraine

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A court appeal hearing at the Highest Economic Court in Kiev, Ukraine, for cargo handler Swissport International to try to regain legal control of its former operation in the country was postponed Tuesday and will take place in two weeks.
Swissport had appealed to the court in mid-April after having lost its business in the Ukraine to UIA (Ukrainian International Airlines) with a court decision on March 27. Since the loss of ownership of Swissport Ukraine, the company has put great efforts into publicizing details of the case which was based on alleged violations of shareholder formalities. Swissport said it “never violated any of these formalities and always respected all rights of the minority shareholder.”
Swissport said it’s looking forward to the proceedings and remains optimistic, especially with the re-established Anti-Raider-Commission of the Ukraine under the leadership of Serhiy Arbuzov now in place, who stated in the June 14 Kyiv Post that the “Cabinet of Ministers has designated raidership as a strategic problem that must be eliminated as soon as possible.”
The court appeal hearing was postponed at the request of Swissport due to UIA having handed in a motion for additional documents just before the court hearing. With the postponement Swissport said it now has the chance to review the additional new documents to be prepared for the new court appeal hearing.
“Should the court decide in favour of Swissport International, the company would be very much looking forward to re-enter the Ukrainian market,” the company said.